Study Shows The Moto G Is Driving Motorola's Comeback In The UK

The Moto G has undoubtedly been a runaway success in India, helping Motorola and Google build their stronghold in developing nations. However, the phone dubbed as a 'budget device for emerging markets' has been helped Motorola grow its market share in the UK from near-zero to 6 per cent in just six months.

The Moto G was launched globally in November last year, when Motorola Mobility was a part of Google rather than Chinese manufacturer Lenovo. It has since become the frontrunner in the mid-range smartphone market the world over.

According to Kantar Worldpanel, Android's market share in the UK dipped by 4.3 per cent in the December-Feb period, the Moto G has helped the OS retain its top spot in Europe, with a 68.9 per cent share – growing by 2.1 per cent when compared to the same period last year.

IOS retained the second spot with 19 per cent market share in the top five EU markets, while Windows took the third spot with a 9.7 per cent market share.

Motorola was nowhere in Europe before the Moto G was launched in November last year, but the new model since has boosted the manufacturer to 6% of British sales. It highlights the speed at which a quality budget phone can disrupt a market,” said Dominic Sunnebo, director of Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

The Moto G has been attracting a very specific consumer profile in the UK, with half the owners aged between 16 and 24, 83 per cent of whom are males. Most buyers come from a lower income group, with over 40 per cent of them earning less than £20,000.

Google, through the Moto G is pushing for OEMs to focus on the areas of display technology, battery life and camera quality, rather than adding custom skins and clogging up the user experience. This is of utmost importance to Google as users of budget devices can get accustomed to Android as an OS and keeps them within the platform when they upgrade.

Like in India, e-commerce played a huge role in the success of the Moto G in the UK, with nearly half of all sales being made online. This shows the shift where buyers of budget devices are becoming more tech savy, researching which device to buy online rather than asking local sellers.

Motorola stealing a large chunk of low-mid range smartphone buyers has hit Samsung and Nokia the hardest. While Nokia is trying even harder to compete with the top Android and Apple devices, bulk of its sales are powered by low-cost devices in emerging markets.